Australian print server market reaches two-year low
Australian print server market reaches two-year low
The print server market in Australia has suffered a slide, according to figures released by analyst group IDC.
The figures for the second half of 2003 (July to December) show that in terms of unit shipments, the total print server market in Australia has declined by 11.5 percent, compared to the same period the previous year.
The main contributor to this decline is Internal Ethernet print servers which contracted by 96.3 percent from the same period last year. To make up for this decline Internal Fast Ethernet/Gigabit Ethernet print servers should have grown but they managed only a 4.6 percent increase off of a larger installed base.
HP, the long-time leader in this market space, once again held the number one position in 2H 2003 with a 37.1 percent market share. Jumping into second position was Kyocera with 14.7 percent share, an increase of over one point from 1H 2003. Following in third position was Lexmark with a 9.8 percent share of the local market, and rounding out the top 5 were Canon and NetGear with 5.5 percent and 5.3 percent share respectively.
"Vendors such as HP and Lexmark have historically performed better in the local print server market as they are able to offer both external print servers and devices that are network ready," said Michael Sager, IDC hardware analyst. "While the internal market continues to grow, there are areas of opportunity for external devices, especially in the SME segment."
Sager added: "The market should continue to remain buoyant as the printing devices continue to become more networked in the future. IDC also expects to see an increase in wireless print servers over time as the technology becomes cheaper and more available to the market."
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